"Lee-EbbTide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lee Mary Soon)

"Yes."

"But you took the technical proficiency test, and qualified for entry to the
U.S."

"Yes." The words had run out of my head just like Clarissa's. Her fingers were
entwined in mine in a sticky knot. I stared at the man dumbly. Despite his navy
blue uniform and crew cut hair, he managed to look scruffy. At night, he
probably went home, put his feet up on the sofa, and watched telly all evening.
But here he was judge and jury, sole arbitrator of our petitions.

"See, we don't ordinarily readmit people who upped and left soon as things got
tough. You re-scin-ded your citizenship when you went." He spun out each
syllable of rescinded as though it were a parliamentary edict. "You got any
ex-tenu-ating circumstances?"

"Yes."

He looked at me expectantly.

"My daughter --" the rest of the speech died in my throat. I lifted Clarissa up
so that he could see her tattoo.

He leaned forward, and reached out to touch Clarissa. I put her down quickly,
but his face was unexpectedly sympathetic. "My sister had a boy like that. Her
husband wanted her to sell him, you know, to America or Japan for upgrading. So
my sister divorced him, and she's looking after the kid by herself."

He stamped my papers. "You can go. I've given you unlimited entry on
compassionate grounds. Your daughter looks like a nice kid. Good luck."

"Thank you." Stupidly, I wanted to cry. He didn't know me, but he was trying to
be kind. I'd almost forgotten what that felt like. As Clarissa and I were
walking away, he called after us, "If you've time, take her to the Zoo. They've
got a baby giant panda."

London hadn't changed. Oh, the youngsters were sporting primary-colored bands of
body fur instead of the spiky hairstyles I remembered, and there were few
private cars left on the road. But in comparison to Los Angeles or Tokyo, it was
like stepping into the past. A few decades ago, back when parliament almost
revoked the fight to silence, pundits predicted that Britain would soon be a Big
Brother state, complete with twenty-four hour surveillance and electronic ID
cards.

But in 2009, the Ecorights party passed stringent laws forbidding any form of
electronic recording or tracking of people's movements. Two years later, they
finally gave Britain a constitution, protecting human rights, interstellar alien
rights (not that we knew of any aliens), animal rights, and plant rights -- all
the way down to the endangered country hedgerows. And despite the failing